Many public washrooms have incorporated sensors that automatically operate various washroom devices, such as urinals, water closets, hand dryers, faucets, and soap dispensers. Sensors are particularly useful when coupled to a flush valve, allowing urinals and water closets to be flushed without manual operation by the user. Generally, sensors transmit an infrared beam in a desired direction; if the beam is reflected from a user of the device back toward a receiver in the sensor, power is applied to operate the washroom device (e.g. actuating a flush valve for a toilet, opening a faucet valve, etc.).
Currently used sensors transmit a beam having a spot-shaped sensing zone, which covers a small sensing area and/or has a low, diffused power density. The beam itself is pointed forward, creating a sensing zone that is directly in front of the flush valve on which the sensor is mounted. If the sensor is mounted on a water closet with a toilet, the height of the beam may cause the beam to miss a user if, for example, the user is seated rather than standing in the water closet and cause the sensor to fail to activate the flush valve. This may lead the user to believe that the sensor and flush valve are not working even when they are functioning normally.
Attempts to remedy this problem may entail adding a refractive layer that changes the infrared beam's direction. Although this change allows the beam to detect a user in a different position, there is still the possibility that the beam will miss the user (e.g., the beam may travel between a user's legs if the water closet is being used as a urinal). The refracted beam also does not allow the beam direction to be adjusted based on the type of washroom device on which the sensor would be mounted. Because different washroom devices have different predicted user positions, a sensor having a beam optimized in one direction for a given washroom device may not be optimized for another washroom device.
There is a desire for a sensor that can detect a washroom device user more accurately.
There is also a desire for a washroom device sensor that allows adjustment of a beam direction.